Brokerage Analysts Set Their Aim on AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN)

by Engelwood Staff — December 1, 2016

Wall Street is predicting that AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN)’s earnings per share (EPS) will be $1.01 when the firm is expected to announce earnings around 2017-01-26. Zacks Research, a leading equity research firm for over 30 years, provides the consensus number. The definition of earnings per share (EPS) means that it is the portion of a profit given to each share of stock. Earnings Per Share is a quality indicator of a company’s profitability.

Individual investors and sell-side analysts will want to see how the actual numbers play out compared to their estimates. A sizeable “surprise factor” can lead to a large change in the stock’s price during the time immediately following the initial report. A “surprise factor of -2.63% was recorded for AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN) over the last fiscal quarter.

Where Does Wall Street See the Stock Going?

Wall Street came up with price targets ranging from $45 to $57. This is a standard deviation of $5.371. The 8 analysts used projected a consensus target of $52. This was last revised on 2016-11-21 and are the projections for the next twelve month period.

Private Investors use the Average Brokerage Recommendation score to determine what the consensus is on a given stock. The ABR uses the actual recommendations made by brokerage firms to calculated their number. The ABR is displayed with decimals (e.g. 1.59) where the Zacks Rank shows in whole numbers (e.g. 2, 3, 4, etc.). The ABR is a rank displayed on a 1-to-5 scale, with 1 is a “Strong Buy” and 5 is a “Strong Sell”. Analysts are usually overly optimistic, and this should be considered when making investment decisions. AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN) has an ABR of 2.5.